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It seems somewhat appropriate that 2014 is the year when ordinary Web users have begun to seriously question how the Internet is working for them and what impact it is actually having on their lives. It’s been 30 years since 1984, the year when George Orwell envisioned that massive state surveillance and always-on content delivery systems would be used to both control and monitor us. 1994 saw the beta release of the first tracking cookie -- it then became possible to monitor which sites we…See More

It seems somewhat appropriate that 2014 is the year when ordinary Web users have begun to seriously question how the Internet is working for them and what impact it is actually having on their lives. It’s been 30 years since 1984, the year when George Orwell envisioned that massive state surveillance and always-on content delivery systems would be used to both control and monitor us. 1994 saw the beta release of the first tracking cookie -- it then became possible to monitor which sites we…See More

One of the most exciting developments to happen to the automobile market in a very long time is the recent rise of more efficient electric and hybrid cars. Not since 1908, when Henry Ford changed transportation forever in the U.S. in just a few short years with the introduction of the Model T and his assembly line system has the automotive world seen such an innovation.Today, though,…See More

I’ll be one of the more than 70,000 people to descend on Central Texas for SXSW 2014. It’s my first time, a little unusual for a tech entrepreneur, CEO, investor, maker, “open sourcerer” and music enthusiast. After many years my pal Hal from San Francisco finally convinced me to spend a week here. So I’ll be flying in from Cologne, Germany, looking forward to having a blast with “my kind.”SXSW, to me, represents the technology and creativity that has made my life so exciting, and the…See More

I’ll be one of the more than 70,000 people to descend on Central Texas for SXSW 2014. It’s my first time, a little unusual for a tech entrepreneur, CEO, investor, maker, “open sourcerer” and music enthusiast. After many years my pal Hal from San Francisco finally convinced me to spend a week here. So I’ll be flying in from Cologne, Germany, looking forward to having a blast with “my kind.”SXSW, to me, represents the technology and creativity that has made my life so exciting, and the…See More

Twitter is the latest online service to begin tinkering with its user experience (UX) -- traditionally something Facebook and Google have been guilty of. In one week alone, Twitter changed its notifications function on the mobile app, and revamped the messaging service to create yet another IM platform on your device. We can also be sure that changes to the browser version can’t be too far behind either.Twitter even, very briefly, revoked the ‘block’ function; an incident that led to widespread…See More

Twitter is the latest online service to begin tinkering with its user experience (UX) -- traditionally something Facebook and Google have been guilty of. In one week alone, Twitter changed its notifications function on the mobile app, and revamped the messaging service to create yet another IM platform on your device. We can also be sure that changes to the browser version can’t be too far behind either.Twitter even, very briefly, revoked the ‘block’ function; an incident that led to widespread…See More

The PRISM scandal hasn’t been out of the headlines and has brought to light serious issues and concerns about international security, privacy and data protection. Moreover it has brought to the global public’s attention that their data (be it Facebook posts or Google searches) may not be as private as they once thought. Of course, this is not a new discussion but it is the way in which PRISM has served to highlight governmental collusion that’s brought the story to the fore. Like a red flag to…See More

The PRISM scandal hasn’t been out of the headlines and has brought to light serious issues and concerns about international security, privacy and data protection. Moreover it has brought to the global public’s attention that their data (be it Facebook posts or Google searches) may not be as private as they once thought. Of course, this is not a new discussion but it is the way in which PRISM has served to highlight governmental collusion that’s brought the story to the fore. Like a red flag to…See More

Growing consumerization of technology means an increasing number of people have control of what technologies they use in both their personal and business lives. Two of the biggest areas where this trend manifests itself these days are mobile technologies and software, the latter of which has resulted in a steady and significant growth in the use of open source software (OSS) thanks to its lower cost and relatively similar functional capabilities. Respondents in last year’s annual Future of Open…See More

Growing consumerization of technology means an increasing number of people have control of what technologies they use in both their personal and business lives. Two of the biggest areas where this trend manifests itself these days are mobile technologies and software, the latter of which has resulted in a steady and significant growth in the use of open source software (OSS) thanks to its lower cost and relatively similar functional capabilities. Respondents in last year’s annual Future of Open…See More

Profile Information

Short Biography

Rafael Laguna is CEO and co-founder of OX, providing leadership and strategic vision across the organization. Under Rafael’s guidance, OX developed its product offerings to include SaaS cloud architecture in collaboration with key partners. A co-founder of OX, Rafael was chairman of the board until 2008 when he became CEO.
Rafael has extensive experience in enterprise software, having previously held the position of VP Marketing and Business Development at SUSE Linux as well as being CEO of Micado, overseeing the turnaround of Bäurer AG and its subsequent takeover by Sage. Passionate about the open source movement, Rafael also acts in an advisory role for the Open Source Business Foundation.

Rafael Laguna's Blog

It’s commonly accepted that China is the largest nation on Earth by population, with more than 1.36 billion residents. But when today’s giants of Silicon Valley have as much ownership and control over our daily lives as traditional national governments do, it’s time to think more broadly in how we define a state. So if you factor in the Internet’s major “Data States” – Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon,…

Facebook has a long history of pushing the envelope when it comes data privacy and user rights, and one of the most egregious examples was its research on “emotional contagion,” where user news feeds were manipulated to study their reactions to negative posts. It may have sounded innocent enough to the data scientists in Menlo Park, CA, but the reality was that this Web overlord distorted its customers’ emotional states in order to better understand how to profit from them.

It seems somewhat appropriate that 2014 is the year when ordinary Web users have begun to seriously question how the Internet is working for them and what impact it is actually having on their lives. It’s been 30 years since 1984, the year when George Orwell envisioned that massive state surveillance and always-on content delivery systems would be used to both control and monitor us. 1994 saw the beta release of the first tracking cookie -- it then became possible to monitor which sites we…

One of the most exciting developments to happen to the automobile market in a very long time is the recent rise of more efficient electric and hybrid cars. Not since 1908, when Henry Ford changed transportation forever in the U.S. in just a few short years with the introduction of the Model T and his assembly line system has the automotive world seen such an innovation.…